Music game system, computer program of same, and method of generating sound effect data

ABSTRACT

A music game system ( 1 ) is provided with a sound input device ( 9 ) which inputs sound, a speaker ( 8 ) which outputs game sound, and a external storage device ( 20 ) which stores sound effect data ( 27 ) to cause the speaker to output each of sound effects of different musical intervals and sequence data ( 29 ) in which a relationship between a player&#39;s operation and the sound effect to be output correspondingly is described. The music game system determines the musical interval representing an input sound based on sound data of the sound input by the sound input device ( 9 ), generates multiple tone data which have different music interval from the sound data respectively based on the musical interval determination result so as to form the musical scale, and stores a set of multiple tone data as at least a part of the sound effect data ( 27 ).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a music game system and the like inwhich a sound input by a player is reflected in game contents.

BACKGROUND ART

Music game machines in which game contents changes based on a soundinput by a player are well-known. For example, music game machines thatreflect an input sound in the behavior of characters (refer to PatentLiterature 1) and also music game machines that inputs and marksplayer's singing to vie for supremacy (refer to Patent Literature 2) areknown. Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2002-136764 and Patent Literature 2:JP-A-H10-268876.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

All of the above game machines change game contents by capturing aplayer's voice. After a musical interval of the player's voice isdetected, processing is performed so that behavior of characters ischanged based on a result of comparison with a reference musicalinterval. However, no game machine is configured to reflect a soundinput by the player as a raw material in game content to enjoy the gamebased on the input sound.

The present invention aims to provide a music game system capable ofdetermining a sound input by a player and forming a musical scale basedon a determination result, a computer program thereof, and a method ofgenerating sound effect data.

Solution to Problem

The music game system of the present invention is a game systemcomprising: a sound input device which inputs sound; an audio outputdevice which outputs game sound; a sound effect data storage devicewhich stores sound effect data to cause the audio output device tooutput each of sound effects of different musical intervals; a sequencedata storage device which stores sequence data in which a relationshipbetween a player's operation and the sound effect to be outputcorrespondingly is described; a musical interval determination devicewhich determines the musical interval representing an input sound basedon sound data of the sound input by the sound input device; a musicalscale generating device which generates multiple tone data which havedifferent music interval from the sound data respectively based on amusical interval determination result of the musical intervaldetermination device so as to form the musical scale; and a sound effectdata storage control device which causes the sound effect data storagedevice to store the multiple tone data generated by the musical scalegenerating device as at least a part of the sound effect data.

The computer program of the present invention is a computer program fora music game system comprising: a sound input device which inputs sound;an audio output device which outputs game sound; a sound effect datastorage device which stores sound effect data to cause the audio outputdevice to output each of sound effects of different musical intervals; asequence data storage device which stores sequence data in which arelationship between a player's operation and the sound effect to outputcorrespondingly is described; wherein the computer program causes themusic game system to function as: a musical interval determinationdevice which determines the musical interval representing an input soundbased on sound data of the sound input by the sound input device; amusical scale generating device which generates multiple tone data whichhave different music interval from the sound data respectively based ona musical interval determination result of the musical intervaldetermination device so as to form the musical scale; and a sound effectdata storage control device which causes the sound effect data storagedevice to store the multiple tone data generated by the musical scalegenerating device as at least a part of the sound effect data.

In the present invention, sound data is generated by a musical intervaldetermination device based on a sound input into a sound input device bya player and a musical interval to represent the sound data isdetermined. Then, multiple tone data which have different music intervalare generated by a musical scale generation device from the sound datawhose musical interval has been determined based on a musical intervaldetermination result of the sound data. The multiple tone data form amusical scale. The multiple tone data are stored in a sound effect datastorage device as sound effect data and the multiple tone data are usedas a sound effect to be output in response to a player's operation.Thus, a musical scale is formed based on a sound input arbitrarily bythe player and therefore, a melody can be played based on an input soundor an input sound may be reflected in game content as a raw material forthe player to enjoy a game with a sound input by the player.

As one aspect of the music game system of the present invention, themusical interval determination device determines the musical interval ofthe sound by identifying a frequency representing the sound data of thesound input by the sound input device. According to this, the musicalinterval of the sound is determined by, for example, identifying thefrequency at which the distribution is maximum as a representative valuewith reference to a frequency spectrum of the sound data.

As one aspect of the music game system of the present invention, themusical scale generating device generates the musical scale of at leastone octave or more. According to this, a melody can be played bygenerating a musical scale. If a large number of pieces of tone data isgenerated, the musical scale grows in breadth and the number of melodiesthat can be played increases so that game content can be made moreadvanced.

As one aspect of the music game system of the present invention, furthercomprising: an input device which has at least one operating device;wherein the sound effect following a description of the sequence data isplayed by the audio output device based on operations of the playerthrough the input device. According to this, by operating the operatingdevice, the player can reproduce a sound effect constituted of a musicalscale formed by using a sound input by the player. Therefore, an inputsound can be reflected in game content as a raw material to enjoy a gamewith a sound input by the player.

The method of the present invention is a method of generating soundeffect data comprising: a musical interval determination step whichdetermines the musical interval representing an input sound based onsound data of the sound input by a sound input device; a musical scalegenerating step which generates multiple tone data which have differentmusic interval from the sound data respectively based on a musicalinterval determination result of the musical interval determination stepso as to form the musical scale; and a storing step which causes astorage device to store the multiple tone data generated by the musicalscale generating step as sound effect data for outputting from an audiooutput device.

The present invention is a method of generating sound effect data in amusic game system and a computer program thereof and achieves a similaroperation effect. The present invention is not limited to music gamesystems and is also applicable to various electronic devices such aselectronic musical instruments.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

In a music game system according to the present invention and a computerprogram thereof, as described above, sound data is generated by amusical interval determination device based on a sound input into asound input device by a player and a musical interval to represent thesound data is determined. Then, multiple tone data which have differentmusic interval are generated by a musical scale generation device fromthe sound data whose musical interval has been determined based on amusical interval determination result of the sound data. The multipletone data form a musical scale. The multiple tone data are stored in asound effect data storage device as sound effect data and the multipletone data are used as a sound effect to be output in response to aplayer's operation. Thus, a musical scale is formed based on a soundinput arbitrarily by the player and therefore, a melody can be playedbased on an input sound or an input sound may be reflected in gamecontent as a raw material for the player to enjoy a game with a soundinput by the player. A similar effect is achieved by a method ofgenerating sound effect data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an appearance of a game machine according toone aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the game machine according toone aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of an operation instruction screen displayedas part of a game screen.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing one example of contents of sound effectdata.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing one example of contents of sequence data.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a sequence processing routine executed bya game controller.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a musical interval determinationprocessing routine executed by the game controller.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a musical scale generating processingroutine executed by the game controller.

FIG. 9 is a graph showing one example of sound data.

FIG. 10 is a graph showing a frequency spectrum of the sound data inFIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a graph showing tone data obtained by frequency conversion ofthe sound data in FIG. 9.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

An embodiment obtained by applying the present invention to a mobilegame machine will be described below. As shown in FIG. 1, a game machine1 includes a housing 2 that can be held by a player (user) by hand, afirst monitor 3 arranged on the right side of the housing 2, a secondmonitor 4 arranged on the left side of the housing 2, a plurality ofpush-button switches 5 arranged in the upper part of the first monitor3, and a cross key 6 arranged in the lower part of the first monitor 3.A transparent touch panel 7 is laid on the surface of the first monitor3. The touch panel 7 is a well-known input device that, when touched bya player through a touch pen or the like, outputs a signal in accordancewith the touch position. In addition, the game machine 1 is providedwith various input devices and output devices included in an ordinarymobile game machine such as a power switch, volume operation switch, andpower lamp, but an illustration thereof is omitted in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, a control unit 10 as a computer is provided insidethe game machine 1. The control unit 10 includes a game controller 11 asa control body, a pair of display controllers 12, 13 that operateaccording to output from the game controller 11, and an audio outputcontroller 14. The game controller 11 is configured as a unit combininga microprocessor and various peripheral devices such as internal storagedevices (as an example, a ROM and a RAM) necessary for the operation ofthe microprocessor. The display controllers 12, 13 render an image inaccordance with image data provided from the game controller 11 in aframe buffer to cause the monitors 3, 4 to display a predetermined imageby outputting a video signal corresponding to the rendered image to themonitors 3, 4 respectively. The audio output controller 14 causes aspeaker 8 to play predetermined sound (including music sound and thelike) by generating audio playback signals in accordance with audioplayback data provided from the game controller 11 and outputting themto the speaker 8.

The push-button switches 5, the cross key 6, and the touch panel 7described above are connected to the game controller 11 as input devicesand, in addition, a sound input device (microphone) 9 is connectedthereto. Besides, various input devices may be connected to the gamecontroller 11. Further, an external storage device 20 is connected tothe game controller 11. A storage medium capable of holding storagewithout power feeding like a magnetic storage device and a nonvolatilesemiconductor memory device such as EEPROM is used as the externalstorage device 20. The storage medium of the external storage device 20is removable from the game machine 1.

A game program 21 and game data 22 are stored in the external storagedevice 20. The game program 21 is a computer program needed to play amusic game in the game machine 1 according to a predetermined procedureand contains a sequence control module 23, a musical intervaldetermination module 24, and a musical scale generating module 25 torealize functions according to the present invention. When the gamemachine 1 is started, the game controller 11 performs various initialsettings necessary for operation as the game machine 1 by executing anoperation program stored in an internal storage device thereof and thensets the environment to play the music game according to the gameprogram 21 by reading the game program 21 from the external storagedevice 20 and executing the game program 21. A sequence process portion15 is generated in the game controller 11 after the sequence controlmodule 23 of the game program 21 being performed by the game controller11. Also, a musical interval determination portion 16 is generated inthe game controller 11 after the musical interval determination module24 of the game program 21 being performed by the game controller 11 andsimilarly, a musical scale generating portion 17 is generated in thegame controller 11 after the musical scale generating module 25 beingperformed by the game controller 11.

The sequence process portion 15, the musical interval determinationportion 16, and the musical scale generating portion 17 are logicaldevices realized by combining computer hardware and computer programs.The sequence process portion 15 performs music game processing such asissuing instructions of operation to a player in time to playback ofmusic (musical piece) selected by the player or generating a soundeffect in accordance with a player's operation. The musical intervaldetermination portion 16 decides a representative value of a frequencyby capturing any sound input into the sound input device 9 by the playerand performing predetermined processing described later thereon. Themusical scale generating portion 17 generates multiple tone data bychanging the musical interval based on the representative value decidedby the musical interval determination portion 16. These pieces of tonedata form musical scales of a predetermined octave number and constitutesound effects. In addition to the above modules 23 to 25, variousprogram modules necessary for playing the music game are contained inthe game program 21 and logical devices corresponding to such modulesare generated in the game controller 11, but an illustration thereof isomitted.

Various kinds of data to be referenced when the music game is playedaccording to the game program 21 are contained in the game data 22. Forexample, music data 26, sound effect data 27, and image data 28 arecontained in the game data 22. The music data 26 is data needed to causethe speaker 8 to play and output a musical piece intended for the game.Though one kind of the music data 26 is shown in FIG. 2, the player canactually select the musical piece from a plurality of musical pieces.The game data 22 has the plurality of pieces of the music data 26recorded with information to identify each musical piece attachedthereto. The sound effect data 27 is data in which a plurality of kindsof sound effects to be output from the speaker 8 in response to aplayer's operation is recorded by associating with unique code for eachsound effect. A sound effect contains sounds of instruments and othervarious kinds of sounds. Vocal sounds to cause the speaker 8 to outputtext are also contained as a kind of sound effects. The sound effectdata 27 is prepared for each kind for a predetermined octave number bychanging the musical interval. The image data 28 is data to cause themonitors 3 and 4 to display a background image in the game screen,various objects, icons and the like.

Further, sequence data 29 is contained in the game data 22. The sequencedata 29 is data that defines operations and the like to be instructed tothe player. At least one piece of the sequence data 29 is prepared forone piece of the music data 26.

Next, an overview of the music game played in the game machine 1 will beprovided. As shown in FIG. 1, an operation instruction screen 100 of thegame is displayed in the first monitor 3 and an information screen 110of the game is displayed in the second monitor 4 while the music game isplayed in the game machine 1. As shown also in FIG. 3, a state in whicha first lane 101, a second lane 102, and a third lane 103 extending inthe vertical direction are visually divided by a procedure such asdividing by a division line 104 is displayed in the operationinstruction screen 100. An operation reference portion 105 is displayedat a bottom end of each of the lanes 101, 102 and 103. Objects 106 asoperation indicators are displayed in the lanes 101, 102 and 103according to the sequence data 27 while the music game is played, thatis, playback of a musical piece is in progress.

The objects 106 appear at a top end of the lanes 101, 102 and 103 at anappropriate time of the musical piece and are scrolled downward, asindicated by an arrow A in FIG. 3, with the progress of the musicalpiece. The player is requested to perform a touch operation of the lane101, the lane 102, or the lane 103 in which the object 106 is displayedthrough an operation member such as a touch pen 120 coinciding with thearrival of the object 106 at the operation reference portion 105. If theplayer performs a touch operation, a difference between the time whenthe object 106 and the operation reference portion 105 match and thetime when the player performs the touch operation is detected. Theplayer's operation is evaluated more highly with a decreasing thedifference. Moreover, a sound effect corresponding to each of theobjects 106 is played by the speaker 8 in accordance with the touchoperation. In the example of FIG. 3, the object 106 is immediatelybefore arriving at the operation reference portion 105 in the secondlane 102 and the player may perform a touch operation of the second lane102 coinciding with the arrival thereof. Anywhere inside the second lane102 may be touched. That is, three operating devices are formed in thepresent embodiment by the combination of the lanes 101, 102 and 103displayed in the first monitor 3 and the touch panel 107 laid thereon.Incidentally, each of the lanes 101, 102 and 103 may be used as a termrepresenting the operating device below.

The sound effect corresponding to each of the objects 106 played inaccordance with a touch operation is selected from a plurality of soundeffects recorded in the sound effect data 27. As shown in FIG. 4, thesound effect data 27 contains original data 27 a pre-recorded in thegame data 22 and user data 27 b obtained based on sound input into thesound input device 9 by the player. The original data 27 a and the userdata 27 b have a plurality of sound effects A1, B1, . . . recordedtherein and if the sound effect A1 is taken as an example, the soundeffect A1 has a set of tone data sd_000, sd_001, sd_002, . . .associating each tone configuring a musical scale with unique coderecorded therein. The other sound effects B1, Cl, . . . have similartone data. The user data 27 b is similar to the original data 27 a inthe structure of tone data included in the sound effects A1, B1, . . . ,but is different from the pre-recorded original data 27 a in that tonedata is generated based on sound input into the sound input device 9 bythe player.

Next, the sequence data 29 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG.5, the sequence data 29 contains an initial setting portion 29 a and anoperation sequence portion 29 b. In the initial setting portion 29 a,information specifying play conditions of the game that are differentfrom musical piece to musical piece such as information like the tempoof the music (for example, a BPM) as an initial setting for the game toplay and information specifying sound effects to be generated when thelanes 101 to 103 are each operated is described.

In the operation sequence portion 29 b, on the other hand, operationspecifying information 29 c and sound effect switching instructioninformation 29 d are described. The operation specifying information 29c in which operation times of the lanes 101 to 103 are associated withinformation specifying one of the lanes 101 to 103 is described. Thatis, as illustrated in FIG. 5 as a portion thereof, the operationspecifying information 29 c is configured as a set of a plurality ofrecords associating the time (operation time) when an operation shouldbe performed during a musical piece with information specifying theoperation device (lane). As the operation time, values indicating a barnumber in the musical piece, a beat number, and the time in a beat aredescribed by each delimited with a comma. The time in a beat is anelapsed time from the start of a beat and if the time length of a beatis equally divided into n unit times, the time in a beat is representedby the number of units from the start of the beat. If, for example,n=100 and the time ¼ having passed from the start of the second beat ofthe first bar of a musical piece should be specified as the operationtime, the operation specifying information 29 c is described as “01, 2,025”. When the first lane 101 should be specified as the operationdevice, “button 1” is described, when the second lane 102 should bespecified, “button2” is described, and when the third lane 103 should bespecified, “button3” is described. In the example of FIG. 5, theoperation time and the operation device are specified in a manner suchas touching the first lane 101 at the start (000) of the first beat ofthe first bar, touching the second lane 102 at the start (000) of thesecond beat of the first bar, and touching the third lane 103 when “025”passes after the start of the second beat of the first bar.

The sound effect switching instruction information 29 d is inserted intoa suitable position in the operation specifying information 29 c. Thesound effect switching instruction information 29 d is described byassociating the time in a musical piece when the sound effect should bechanged and tone data of sound effects to be generated when the lanes101 to 103 are each operated to change the sound effects generated whenthe specified lane is touched in the subsequent operation specifyinginformation 29 c. The time in a musical piece is described in the sameformat as the format of the operation time of the operation specifyinginformation 29 c. The sound effect switching instruction information 29d specifies tone data of one of the original data 27 a and the user data27 b recorded in the sound effect data 27 for each lane. The soundeffect switching instruction information 29 d is inserted into the timein a musical piece when the sound effect should be switched and thesetting of the sound effect is maintained until instructed by the nextsound effect switching instruction information 29 d.

The sequence process portion 15 of the game controller 11 controls thedisplay of each of the lanes 101 to 103 so that the object 106 and theoperation reference portion 105 match at the above operation timespecified by the operation specifying information 29 c. The sequenceprocess portion 15 also exercises control so that the sound effectsgenerated when the player touches the specified lanes 101 to 103 areswitched at the time in a musical piece specified by the sound effectswitching instruction information 29 d.

Next, processing of the game controller 11 when a music game is playedon the game machine 1 will be described. After completing initialsettings necessary to play the music game by reading the game program21, the game controller 11 waits in preparation for instructions tostart the game from a player. Instructions to start the game include,for example, an operation to identify the musical piece to be played inthe game or data to be used in the game such as the selection of thedegree of difficulty. The procedure for receiving such instructions maybe the same as the procedure for a well-known music game and the like.

If the start of the game is instructed, the game controller 11 reads themusic data 26 corresponding to the music selected by the player andoutputs the music data 26 to the audio output controller 14 to cause thespeaker 8 to play the musical piece. Accordingly, the control unit 10functions as a musical piece playback device. In synchronization withplayback of the musical piece, the game controller 11 also reads thesequence data 29 corresponding to the player's selection to generateimage data necessary for rendering of the operation instruction screen100 and the information screen 110 while referencing the image data 28and outputs the image data to the display controllers 12 and 13 to causethe monitors 3 and 4 to display the operation instruction screen 100 andthe information screen 110 respectively. Further, while the music gameis played, the game controller 11 repeatedly executes the sequenceprocessing routine shown in FIG. 6 as processing necessary for thedisplay of the operation instruction screen 100 and the like in apredetermined period.

When the sequence processing routine shown in FIG. 6 is started, in stepS1, the sequence process portion 15 of the game controller 11 firstobtains the current time in the musical piece. For example, keeping timeis started by an internal clock of the game controller 11 relative tothe time of playback start of the musical piece and the current time isobtained from the value of the internal clock. In subsequent step S2,the sequence process portion 15 obtains data of the operation timepresent in the time length corresponding to the display range of theoperation instruction screen 100 from the sequence data 28. The displayrange is set, as an example, to the time range corresponding to two barsof the musical piece from the current time toward the future.

In next step S3, the sequence process portion 15 calculates coordinatesof all the objects 106 to be displayed in the lanes 101 to 103 in theoperation instruction screen 100. The calculation is carried out, as anexample, as described below. Whether to arrange the object 106 in any ofthe lanes 101 to 103 is determined based on the designation of the lanes101 to 103 associated with any operation time contained in the displayrange, that is, the designation of any of “button1” to “button3” in theexample of FIG. 5. Also, the position of each of the objects 106 in thetime-axis direction (namely, the direction of movement of the object106) from the operation reference portion 105 is determined inaccordance with a difference between each operation time and the currenttime. Accordingly, coordinates of each of the objects 106 needed toarrange each of the objects 106 along the time axis from the operationreference portion 105 in the specified lanes 101 to 103 can be obtained.

After the calculation of coordinates of the objects 106 is completed,the sequence process portion 15 proceeds to step S4 to determine whetherthe sound effect switching instruction information 29 d is present inthe data which is obtained from the sequence data 29. If the soundeffect switching instruction information 29 d is present, the sequenceprocess portion 15 obtains the current time in step S5 and compares thecurrent time with the time in the musical piece specified by the soundeffect switching instruction information 29 d to determine whether thecurrent time corresponds to the timing of switching instructions of thesound effect. If the current time corresponds to the timing of switchinginstructions of the sound effect, in step S6, the sequence controlportion 15 changes the sound effects generated in the respective lanes101 to 103 specified by the subsequent operation specifying information29 c to the sound effects specified by the sound effect switchinginstruction information 29 d. To give a description by taking theexample shown in FIG. 5, after the start of the third beat of the firstbar of the musical piece, sound data sd_101, sd_105, sd_106 of the soundeffect A2 of the user data 27 b of the sound effect data 27 is allocatedto the lanes 101, 102 and 103 respectively and if the player touches thelanes 101, 102 or 103, the respective sound data is played. If the soundeffect switching instruction information 29 d is not present in step S4or the sound effect switching instruction information 29 d is notpresent in step S5, the sequence process portion 15 proceeds to step S7.

When switching of the sound effects is completed, the sequence processportion 15 proceeds to next step S7 to generate image data necessary forrendering of the operation instruction screen 100 based on coordinatesof the objects 106 calculated in step S3. More specifically, thesequence process portion 15 generates image data in such a way that theobjects 106 are arranged in calculated coordinates. The image of theobject 106 may be obtained from the image data 28.

In subsequent step S8, the sequence process portion 15 outputs the imagedata to the display controller 12. Accordingly, the operationinstruction screen 100 is displayed in the first monitor 3. When theprocessing in step S8 is completed, the sequence process portion 15terminates this sequence processing routine. With the above processingbeing performed repeatedly, the objects 106 are displayed by scrollingin the lanes 101 to 103 in such a way that the objects 106 arrive at theoperation reference portion 105 at operation times described in thesequence data 29.

Next, processing by the musical interval determination unit 16 and themusical scale generating portion 17 when a sound effect is created basedon a sound input by a player into the game machine 1 will be described.A sound effect is created when, for example, the start thereof isinstructed by the player in a waiting state in which no music game isplayed. When the creation of a sound effect is started, first themusical interval determination portion 16 executes the musical intervaldetermination processing routine shown in FIG. 7 and the musical scalegenerating portion 17 executes the musical scale generating processingroutine shown in FIG. 8 based on a result of the musical intervaldetermination processing routine.

When the musical interval determination processing routine in FIG. 7 isstarted, in step S11, the musical interval determination portion 16 ofthe game controller 11 obtains sound input by the player. If the playerinputs sound when the sound input device 9 is ready to capture sound,raw sound data is generated. In subsequent step S12, the musicalinterval determination portion 16 makes A/D conversions of the raw sounddata. An analog signal of the raw sound data is thereby converted into adigital signal to create sound data of the input sound. FIG. 9 shows anexample of sound data. The sound data in FIG. 9 is a digital waveform ofguitar sound and the horizontal axis and the vertical axis represent thedynamic range and the duration respectively. Incidentally, well-knowntechnology may be used for A/D conversion.

Then, in step S13, the musical interval determination portion 16 obtainsa frequency spectrum of the sound data. FIG. 10 shows a frequencyspectrum generated by a fast Fourier transform of the sound dataobtained in step S12. The horizontal axis and the vertical axisrepresent the frequency and the degree of distribution of the frequencyrespectively. Incidentally, the generation of a frequency spectrum isnot limited to the calculation based on the fast Fourier transform andvarious well-known technologies may be used. In subsequent step S14, themusical interval determination portion 16 decides the representativevalue from the frequency spectrum obtained in step S13. Therepresentative value is defined as the maximum value of the distributionnumber of the frequency spectrum. To describe by taking the graph inFIG. 10, the frequency at the peak indicated by an arrow p becomes therepresentative value. Based on the frequency of the representative valuedecided as described above, the musical interval of the sound data basedon the sound input by the player is determined. The representative valuemay also be calculated from data of a band q occupying both sides of acrest having the above maximum peak. The representative value can alsobe calculated from a fixed band by the method as described above whenthe peak is ambiguous with the peak frequency having a width or thelike. If the processing in step S14 is completed, the musical intervaldetermination portion 16 terminates this musical interval determinationprocessing routine. With the above processing, the representative valueof sound data based on a sound input by a player is decided and theinherent musical interval is determined.

If the representative value is obtained by the musical intervaldetermination processing routine, the musical scale generating portion17 executes the musical scale generating processing routine in FIG. 8.In step S21, the musical scale generating portion 17 generates multipletone data forming a musical scale from sound data whose representativevalue has been decided. The musical scale generating portion 17 makesfrequency conversions of the sound data based on the representativevalue so that the representative value of each piece of tone databecomes the frequency of each tone forming the musical scale of thepredetermined octave number. FIG. 11 shows an example offrequency-converted tone data. The waveform in FIG. 11 is obtained byfrequency conversion one octave upward of the sound data in FIG. 9.Then, in step S22, the musical scale generating portion 17 stores a setof generated tone data in the sound effect data 27. The tone data isstored in the user data 27 b of the sound effect data 27. If theprocessing in step S22 is completed, the musical scale generatingportion 17 terminates this musical scale generating processing routine.With the above processing, multiple tone data with mutually differentfrequencies of representative values is generated based on sound datawhose representative value has been decided to form a musical scale. Aset of tone data forming the musical scale is stored in the user data 27b of the sound effect data 27 as a sound effect.

In the above embodiment, the external storage device 20 of the gamemachine 1 functions as a sound effect data storage device and a sequencedata storage device. Also, the control unit 10 functions as a musicalinterval determination device by causing the musical intervaldetermination portion 16 to perform the processing in steps S11 to S14in FIG. 7, functions as a musical scale generating device by causing themusical scale generating portion 17 to perform the processing in stepS21 in FIG. 8, and functions as a sound effect data storage controldevice by causing the musical scale generating portion 17 to perform theprocessing in step S22 in FIG. 8.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and can becarried out in various embodiments. For example, the present embodimenthas been described by taking the music game machine 1 as an example ofthe apparatus that causes a musical interval determination device, amusical scale generating device, and a sound effect data storage controldevice to function, but is not limited to the above example. Forexample, the present invention may be applied to various electronicdevices such as electronic musical instruments. If the present inventionis applied to an electronic musical instrument, a melody can be playedbased on any sound input by the player.

A music game system according to the present invention is not limited togame systems realized as mobile game machines and may be realized in anappropriate form such as home video game machines, business-use gamemachines installed in commercial facilities, and game systems realizedby using a network. The input device is not limited to an example usingthe touch panel and input devices configured in various ways such as apush button, lever, and track ball can be used.

1. A music game system comprising: a sound input device which inputssound; an audio output device which outputs game sound; a sound effectdata storage device which stores sound effect data to cause the audiooutput device to output each of sound effects of different musicalintervals; a sequence data storage device which stores sequence data inwhich a relationship between a player's operation and the sound effectto be output correspondingly is described; a musical intervaldetermination device which determines the musical interval representingan input sound based on sound data of the sound input by the sound inputdevice; a musical scale generating device which generates multiple tonedata which have different music interval from the sound datarespectively based on a musical interval determination result of themusical interval determination device so as to form the musical scale;and a sound effect data storage control device which causes the soundeffect data storage device to store the multiple tone data generated bythe musical scale generating device as at least a part of the soundeffect data.
 2. The music game system of claim 1, wherein the musicalinterval determination device determines the musical interval of thesound by identifying a frequency representing the sound data of thesound input by the sound input device.
 3. The music game system of claim1, wherein the musical scale generating device generates the musicalscale of at least one octave or more.
 4. The music game system of claim1, further comprising: an input device which has at least one operatingdevice; wherein the sound effect following a description of the sequencedata is played by the audio output device based on operations of theplayer through the input device.
 5. A storage medium storing a computerprogram for a music game system comprising: a sound input device whichinputs sound; an audio output device which outputs game sound; a soundeffect data storage device which stores sound effect data to cause theaudio output device to output each of sound effects of different musicalintervals; a sequence data storage device which stores sequence data inwhich a relationship between a player's operation and the sound effectto output correspondingly is described; wherein the computer programcauses the music game system to function as: a musical intervaldetermination device which determines the musical interval representingan input sound based on sound data of the sound input by the sound inputdevice; a musical scale generating device which generates multiple tonedata which have different music interval from the sound datarespectively based on a musical interval determination result of themusical interval determination device so as to form the musical scale;and a sound effect data storage control device which causes the soundeffect data storage device to store the multiple tone data generated bythe musical scale generating device as at least a part of the soundeffect data.
 6. A method of generating sound effect data comprising: amusical interval determination step which determines the musicalinterval representing an input sound based on sound data of the soundinput by a sound input device; a musical scale generating step whichgenerates multiple tone data which have different music interval fromthe sound data respectively based on a musical interval determinationresult of the musical interval determination step so as to form themusical scale; and a storing step which causes a storage device to storethe multiple tone data generated by the musical scale generating step assound effect data for outputting from an audio output device.